Labor Migration to Russia Falls to a Quarter of Its Peak as Tashkent Courts Tourists

The number of Uzbek citizens traveling to Russia for work has fallen sharply over the past decade, dropping to approximately 1 million per year from an average exceeding 4 million, according to Uzbek media reports cited by officials in Tashkent. Presidential spokesman Sherzod Asadov attributed the decline to “the effectiveness of ongoing economic reforms” under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The Mirziyoyev administration has put in place a regulatory framework intended to manage labor flows more actively — expanding state support for unskilled workers and steering job seekers toward higher-paying positions in destinations other than Russia. Officials have not specified which countries are absorbing the redirected outflow, nor have they provided independent verification of the migration figures.

The trend is not confined to Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry reported in April that just over 655,000 Kyrgyz nationals were living abroad, the majority as labor migrants — down from more than 837,000 recorded during the same month in 2022, according to official Kyrgyz data.

Tourism push to fill the gap

As outward migration contracts, Tashkent is moving to expand inbound tourism. A statement from the presidential press service said Uzbekistan could attract up to 11 million tourists in 2024, generating as much as $2.5 billion for the economy. That would represent a significant jump from the pre-pandemic baseline: in 2019, before Covid-19 disrupted global travel, the country received 6.75 million visitors.

On June 3, Mirziyoyev met with representatives of the domestic tourism industry and agreed to establish a business council dedicated to promoting the sector. The government is also planning a state-funded advertising campaign and intends to sponsor tours for social media influencers with large followings as part of its promotional strategy.

State agencies are examining ways to simplify the electronic visa process and develop mobile applications to help tourists navigate the country, according to the presidential statement. No timeline or budget figures for those initiatives were provided.